CEPCI to concentrate on Asia for cashew exports

Mangalore, Sep 11 (UNI) With an eye on the high per capita cashew consumption in the Asian region and in view of the market reaching saturation point in the United States, the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI) has identified Asia for its future export activities, its Chairman Walter D'souza said today.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the CEPCI's initiative in this regard had started yielding results. Efforts would be made to strengthen traditional markets like the US and Europe and regain partially lost markets like the Australian continent, besides exploring new market for an overall healthy growth in exports. Cashews were exported to over 65 countries and the growth rate of exports was 20 per cent, he added.

Mr D'souza said the CEPCI had decided to make sustained efforts to popularise and increase share of cashew in chocolates, confectionary, ice-creams and general food industry, with a target of 25,000 MT of broken cashews in the global food industry.

He said the CEPCI was committed to propagate the intrinsic nutritional values of cashew through structured awareness and promotional activities, while dispelling the unfounded myth that pervaded many sections of the society and it was high time to initiate globally acceptable scientific studies to prove the point.

In this regard, the CEPCI had submitted a Rs ten crore project proposal to the Union Government, he noted.

Mr D'souza said the CEPCI had plans to evolve a strategy to arrest the collosal waste of cashew apple, expected to generate about 20 per cent more realisation for growers at an aggregate of Rs 400 crore for the country. It had already taken up live demonstrations on technologies for cashew apple processing in a few places during harvesting this year, in collaboration with the Cashew Research Station of Kerala Agricultural University. Efforts would also be made to create and intensify awareness among the farmers across the country in tendem with the respective State Agriculture Ministries.

In view of the vast potential available for value addition in consumer packs of about Rs 500 crore, the CEPCI proposed to invest Rs one crore by launching promotional activities to popularise branded Indian cashews, starting with UAE in this fiscal. Based on its success, it was proposed to take the activity to other parts of the world, he said.

UNI MA GD SKB1850